Rapido Baggage cars are finally available

[bdennis]

Jason you had me at D&H.. Do tell more..

I already have your other D&H run cars and they are superb!...

[thomasjmdavis]

....
As for Osgood Bradleys, we're looking at announcing a run of "Os Good Enough Bradleys." 

I'm actually being serious - they are very close to cars owned by CN and D&H and others, and we could probably do a couple of the deluxe versions such as SP sunset scheme, even though the window arrangement is a bit different.

-Jason

I have been hoping you might do that.  "Os Good Enough Bradleys" in the 1954 CN scheme might well be good enough for me.  The CN/GTW trains I have modeled are mostly stand in cars anyway, as I figured that being off by a window here or there was preferable to my rather sloppy kitbashing style.

Tracking info tells me my baggage car should be here around lunch time, so hopefully I will be back with a "review" in a couple hours.

[CNR5529]

As for Osgood Bradleys, we're looking at announcing a run of "Os Good Enough Bradleys." 

I'm actually being serious - they are very close to cars owned by CN and D&H and others, and we could probably do a couple of the deluxe versions such as SP sunset scheme, even though the window arrangement is a bit different.

@rapidotrains Thanks for teasing this... AFTER I built mine... haha

But seriously, we can never have enough balloon tops! Looking forward to the official announcement.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[thomasjmdavis]

@rapidotrains Thanks for teasing this... AFTER I built mine... haha

But seriously, we can never have enough balloon tops! Looking forward to the official announcement.

(Attachment Link)

Sides using the Rapido car as a core?  Of is that a resin kit?  Very nice work in either case.  Also, whose CN#11 green paint?  I have been using Modelflex, but it dries too "blue" to my eye.

[CNR5529]

Thanks! Shapeways print in FXD. It took me a while to get the roof to look right, but it is pretty close now (without having the actual CC&F drawings to work with that is):

coach shell - https://www.shapeways.com/product/2VX6PKKWJ/cnr-pb-74-f-balloon-top-coach-n-scale-shell
frame - https://www.shapeways.com/product/HQX8NEAYZ/cnr-pb-74-f-balloon-top-coach-n-scale-frame?optionId=59448829
both parts in one print - https://www.shapeways.com/product/T2X3LZL4E/cnr-pb-74-f-balloon-top-coach-n-scale-assembly?optionId=60620191

I printed the frame in WSF material to reduce costs, however found varying results with the fitting of the shell afterwards. In some instances it rendered too short, and other times too long relative to the shell. For this reason, I uploaded a combined print in FUD/FXD, which eliminates any fit problems because both parts are printed together, although it is more expensive to print.

As for the CNR green, I have been using True Line Trains paint, but have since switched to the Rapido protopaint line. The colour is a spot on match with other Rapido cars. Decals are from the CN Sig (micro scale special run). I have recently found a similar special run of passenger car decals with GTW lettering.

[thomasjmdavis]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] (Quick phone shot on test track)

Yep, every bit as nice as anticipated.

Now all I need to do is build Dearborn Station and paint a couple GTW geeps.

And the hardest part of that seems to be finding Proto Paint CN#11 in the USA.

[craigolio1]

Didn't take it as a bash, but I agree. I wonder how many IM orders have been canceled because the preorders were just short by a few, say if 2 or 3 modelers had placed orders the run would have happen. Where Rapido will tell us which could be the reason I go screw it, I'll order one, so its made.

I ordered one in VIA paint. Then when the news came out that the baggage car wasn't very popular and in danger of being canceled, I ordered another.

In the past a Rapido has delivered very nice products. Considering what it would cost to build Athabasca kits of the same cars and with less detail, the want Rapido cars.

Craig

[Point353]

And the hardest part of that seems to be finding Proto Paint CN#11 in the USA.

Have you tried FDT?
http://www.factorydirecttrains.com/rapido330015proto-paint1ozcnredorg3pk.aspx

[Nato]

       Finally some photos. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[thomasjmdavis]

Nato,
Hope you got a quantity discount. 

[brokemoto]

I see that they have these made cars in B&O paint, but, as far as I know, B&O never had any streamlined baggage cars.  It seems strange that they would cancel some paint schemes but not a Foobie.  Is it that some people will just buy anything in B&O paint?

Every rail nut has two favourite railroads:  The Baltimore and Ohio and one other.   The exception would be the Baltimore and Ohio nut. 

Supposedly, B&O is a "second tier road".  Despite that, I heard from many vendors and dealers that the Bachpersonn EM-1 sold more than the Athearn Challenger and Kato GS-4 combined.  There ain't no more   EM-1s left, but there is one Challenger and one GS-4 still running.  UP and SP are supposed to be "first tier roads". 

I suppose that the appearance of B-mann's EM-1 might explain why the Fox Valley steam-era waggontops never made it to the shelves:  they were sold before they could get there.  I recall seeing the Fox Valley guy at the Springfield Show a couple of years back.  I asked him when the waggontops were going to appear.  He told me that he had sent out everything and had even delivered a few boxes to several dealers, including National Capital Trains, which was only an aisle or two removed from him.  I dashed over there and got two of his last three steam era (the third was a duplicate number, so, rather than buying it, erasing it and re-numbering, I left it for somebody else).  When the second run appeared with an earlier steam era scheme, I was far from  home and learned of it only by someone's sending me a message.  I did something that I avoid:  I ordered them using my web-capable telephone.  It paid off, as by the time that I had arrived home, the place was sold out of the steam era schemes.  Fortunately, no one intercepted my credit card information.  The only time that I have seen the steam era schemes since is on this one guy's tables at several shows.  He sells many C-C N scale passenger cars.  He is not above jacking up his prices to over-list, which is what he did with the waggontops (even those not in steam era schemes).  I suspect that is why he did not sell his.  I have not been to any show in some time, so I do not know if he still has any.

Keep in mind that the Wheels of Time HW B&O baggage cars did not make it to the shelves, either.  In fact, they were so popular that the above-mentioned vendor sold all of his, even at jacked up prices.  There is rumour of a second run of these, both in the old numbers and some new ones.

I tend to model what I rode.  I rode the B&O and SP the most, so I modelled the SP in HO and the B&O in N.

[rapidotrains]

Every rail nut has two favourite railroads:  The Baltimore and Ohio and one other.   The exception would be the Baltimore and Ohio nut. 

Our B&O FA-2 in HO did very well. B&O, like CN, has a lot of oddball prototypes. I would love to be able to do accurate B&O betterment cars one day.

-Jason

[brokemoto]

Our B&O FA-2 in HO did very well. B&O, like CN, has a lot of oddball prototypes. I would love to be able to do accurate B&O betterment cars one day.

Since you build many Canada prototypes, here is one that would not be difficult:  an FPA-2.  B&O ran them, both As and Bs.  The US roads that ran them had mostly As, only.  I would buy them in the "as delivered" Blue and Grey with "as delivered" (pre-1957) road numbers.  Even if you did them in the original paint but with post-1957 road numbers, probably I would buy them.  I would just change the numbers.  The 1959 scheme and the blue/yellow "dip" scheme are out of my era.  LL did FA-2s in original (with pre-1957 road numbers) on the plastic frame and in the 1959 scheme on the split metal frame.  You can put the plastic frame shell onto the split metal frame with a minimum of work.  I did buy an old LL B&O plastic frame and a newer metal frame in I-forget-what-road with the intention of adding the ACLo steam generator details and changing the number.  I actually did change the number, but have yet to fashion the ALCo steam generator details and affix them (they are not difficult, I just have not done them, yet.)  The FPB-2 is unusual in that the steam generator stacks are at the A end, not the B end, as they are in most cab diesels.

If you did B&O "betterment" cars, I would buy them, as well, as they ended up on some of the secondary trains before either scrapping or use in MofW service.  I asked if the MT balloon roofs would fit the coaches, as B&O did rebuild a bunch of HW coaches.  They had round roofs.  The details that would have to change on the coaches is that one door would need to be blanked out and the paired windows would need rounded corners.

You might be able to make a "looks much like a Reading" standard coach out of a balloon roof and the MT single window coach, when it appears.  In fact, you can make a "looks much like a Reading" 1948 coach rebuild out of Rapido's American Flyer cars.  The Rapido cars have an extra window and you would need to take out the part that splits the windows.

[coosvalley]

Every rail nut has two favourite railroads:  The Baltimore and Ohio and one other.   The exception would be the Baltimore and Ohio nut. 

What is this Baltimore and Ohio of which you speak, never heard of it... 

And if I'm being honest, I have little to no interest in the B&O, and I am a rail nut.

Maybe after Chessie spruced up their image 

[thomasjmdavis]

What is this Baltimore and Ohio of which you speak, never heard of it... 

And if I'm being honest, I have little to no interest in the B&O, and I am a rail nut.

Maybe after Chessie spruced up their image 

I always thought that west of the Appalachians, everyone's two favorite railroads were Santa Fe and some other one.  Ask any company that makes F7s.